His final escape

By SUE CARLTON and MIKE WILSON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 24, 2001

From a paid obituary that appeared Aug. 2 in the Jacksonville Times-Union.

Robert "Bobby" Lewis was a Jacksonville criminal who specialized in drug rip-offs and business burglaries. In 1976, he murdered another hoodlum and was sentenced to death. He escaped from death row by putting on a guard's uniform someone had smuggled in and walking out of prison. He was recaptured a few days later.

While in prison, he befriended Danny Rolling, who confessed to Lewis that he had killed five students in Gainesville in August 1990. In exchange for his testimony against Rolling, Lewis was transferred to a prison in Minnesota, where he died of hepatitis C.

This obituary was written by Lewis' wife, Colleen, and his friend Rick Duffus. They paid $360 to run it in the newspaper and on the Times-Union Web site.

-- SUE CARLTON and MIKE WILSON, Times staff writers

LEWIS -- Robert Fieldmore Lewis, born September 30, 1947 to parents Ross and Vivian Lewis in Jacksonville, Florida, escaped the confines of his earthly existence on July 22, 2001 in Stillwater, Minnesota after a lengthy illness. A career criminal, imprisoned for the greater part of his life, Robert gained notoriety for being the first person to escape from Florida State Prison's death row. During his years of confinement, he learned the skills of survival in prison, becoming adept in the art of manipulation. However, he added his own twist. He would often appeal to the worst in people, but he did so in order to bring them together to achieve the best of results. He was never dissuaded by the criticism such a strategy draws because he was proud of the results he achieved. He was most proud that his involvement in events following the Gainesville student murders spared the students' families a prolonged trial. As a child with little supervision, no mentors, and a romantic notion of the criminal as Robin Hood, Robert became embroiled in a juvenile justice system that was known as one of the nation's worst. From this experience he became destined to make the mistakes that would cost him his freedom and, ultimately, his life. Yet, in spite of the negative influences that surrounded him, he maintained a positive, philosophical attitude. Over the years, he came to understand how the course of his life's journey had brought him to his unfortunate destination and he sought to change his direction. As he struggled to improve himself, he once quipped, "I can understand why people do the wrong thing, it's so hard to do the right thing!" Robert hoped he could find a way to teach others the lessons he had learned in life and prevent them from taking the same wrong turns he had taken. Such an opportunity came to him far from his native Florida when he was offered a chance to participate in the Minnesota prison system's "Choices" program. From his involvement, Robert gained respect and admiration not only from his fellow prisoners, but also from the prison staff and officials. He was well known to be an individual who had paid for his crimes and who had become a contributing member of society.

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